The spaceflight company run by PayPal founder Elon Musk suffered its third high-profile mishap Saturday when an undisclosed problem caused a rocket launch to fail. The light-lift Falcon 1 was lost after its two stages failed to separate during the launch from the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean.

Also lost were a Department of Defense satellite, two NASA satellites and the ashes of 208 people, including astronaut Gordon Cooper and James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty in the original Star Trek television show, according to The New York Times.

Wired.com spoke with Musk about SpaceX’s string of setbacks, the power of patience and the future of privately funded spaceflight.